Confident Nepal wins the opener against Afghans

Nischal Tiwari/Kathmandu – Nepal U19 team defeated their arch Rivals Afghanistan by 42 runs and created a history on the low scoring opening match of the tournament .

Almost after the rain stopped in the morning, the two captains came for the toss. Nepal was invited to bat first in such a gloomy weather.

Openers Fazlur Rahman and Subhash Khakurel made a cautious start at the beginning. Glorious boundaries and runs started and sooner they made a 50 run partnership. Both Subhash and Fazlur were looking comfortable against the quickies. Soon after, Fazlur(26) lost his wicket at the end of 9th over. After that the wickets started to tumble just like it was against Namibia in the warm ups. No other batsman looked comfortable outthere expect Openers Subhash Khakurel who made his 50 runs (95 balls) with 5 fours.

Captain Baskota was out without troubling the score. Nepal looked shaky against spinners as well. They couldnot even score boundaries against them and could only manage single and twos. There was no such good partnership in Nepal’s innings that could hit big boundaries at the depth over. However, every run were cheered at the ground by the Nepalese Community. Around 100s of Nepalese were supporting their young guns.

At 44.3 over, Nepal was bowled out for 154 runs. And the faces of the boys looked nervous while they went for inning break. With so many expectations and support from their fans, once again their batting led the team down.

During the chase, Nepal made a brisk start taking the first wicket in the first over. Naresh tooked the first wicket. It was a tricky target to chase for the Afghanistan. But Opener Hashmatullah Shaidi 29 (66 balls) & Captain Shir Shirzai 21 (49 balls) kept on battling out and made a 50 run partnership. At the end of 19th over, Rahul broke the partnership and smile was back on the faces of Nepalese.

As Nepal applied the pressure, wickets started to fall from both ends. At the end of 25th over, their half side were already dismissed just for 78 runs. Only, Mohibullah Paak was looking dangerous but kept on loosing partners and at the end of 38th over, Nepal bowled out them for 112 runs and won the clash by a margin of 42 runs.

Rahul Bishwokarma & Prithu’s disciplined bowling did the trick for Nepalese team. Rahul had a match figure of 7.5-0- 23 – 4 while, Prithu supported him with taking 3 wickets . Rahul is on hattick on next match.

For the best inning of 50 runs, Opener Subhash Khakurel was adjudged Man of the Match. Khakurel considered his knock as a good learning experience: “It was my first experience of playing in these kinds of conditions. I wanted to bat through the innings. I felt 180 was a par score, but we ended with 154. I was confident that our spinners especially Rahul Viswakarma can be lethal here. We turned it around very well. This win has given us confidence that we can beat any team because of our spinners.”

Nepal will be playing Scotland on Fri Jul 29 10:45 IST/15:30 NST against at Merrion Cricket Club Ground, Dublin.

Congrats 2 Subhas(1/2 century), Rahul & Prithu(Wickets)…and da Nepali unit but seriously guyz U HAVE 2 improve da batting. Bowling seems fine(not perfect) and fielding’s good for this level…but if we want 2 reach da Finals of da World Cup and win it, well da teams there will not get bowled out for 112 and scores of less than 250 won’t look so nice on the score card!!